The prior art contains many examples of book holders that are adapted to hold a book open and prevent inadvertent turning of its pages. Most of the known devices include a body member which spans the spine of a book and has fingers or legs at its opposite ends which overlie the pages on opposite sides of the spine and near the latter. When turning a page of a book to which such a holder is applied, the reader must manipulate the page in such manner as to withdraw from beneath the fingers the page to be turned, and this necessitates moving the top or bottom edge of the page toward the opposite edge of the book. The closer that the finger lies to the spine of the book, the greater is the likelihood that the page will be torn. Thus, such book holders are difficult to use and frequently result in a book's being damaged.
Most known book holders also are symmetrical about a point midway between the page engaging fingers. If the fingers are located at the ends of bars which are pivoted to one another, the pivot structure oftentimes is located in a position to bear against the spine of the book. As a result, the pivot structure and the page-engaging fingers exert clamping forces on the book and impose compressive forces on the book's spine which can damage the binding and interfere with turning of the pages.
Others of the known book holders either do not provide for support of a book at a level conducive to reading comfort or if such support is provided, the supporting means are cumbersome and too bulky to permit comfortable, inconspicuous transport of the unit.
One of the objects of the present invention is to provide a book holder which overcomes the disadvantages of known book holders referred to above.